


A Playground Memory

by frozensight



Category: Glee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-16
Updated: 2012-03-16
Packaged: 2017-11-02 00:26:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/362994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frozensight/pseuds/frozensight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam goes to waste time at the local park, and instead of finding solitude finds someone who could use a little cheering up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Playground Memory

It seemed silly to go hang out at a playground when you were eleven—especially by yourself, but Sam Evans didn’t have any better plans for his summer afternoon. His friends were off doing summer work or something, and Sam needed a break from it all. His dyslexia made it hard to focus in school enough as it was, but it was near impossible for Sam to gather the effort to slug through a giant book of words that would only confuse him when it was so much easier to just go to the nearby park and swing in silence.

At least, that’s what he was doing until he noticed that someone was sitting up at the top of the tallest slide, crying.

Slowly, Sam got off the swing and walked over to the end of the slide so he could look up at whoever it was. He was kind of startled when he saw it was a boy about his age, but then again he was there so he couldn’t say anything. The boy didn’t seem to notice him, what with his knees drawn up to his chest and his head hidden behind them.

Staying where he was, Sam called out, “Hey, are you alright?”

The boy jumped--Sam couldn’t blame him--and wiped his eyes quickly on the back of his sleeves before even trying to look at Sam. “Y-Yeah, I’m fine,” replied the boy, his voice rather high pitched, more so than Sam who hadn’t quite yet started puberty.

“Why’re you here all by yourself?” asked Sam next, purposefully avoiding the rather obvious badgering about the fact the boy is most definitely _not_ fine.

“I’m here visiting some relatives of my mom, and I just…needed to get away from them and this seemed to be the best place.” The boy’s answer was simple, and Sam supposed that it was good enough. It sounded like the truth if anything. He hadn’t been expecting to be asked a question in return. “Why are _you_ here by yourself?”

“Oh, my baby sister was getting annoying, and I didn’t want to do homework, so I decided to come here.”

The boy at the top of the slide sniffed once, his nose staying wrinkled in disgust, “You have homework during the summer?”

Sam laughed lightly, “I go to a private school, so they make sure to give us summer homework so we don’t forget anything.”

“That seems silly.” Neither of them spoke for a moment before the boy asked another question, “You have a sister?”

“Huh? Yeah, Stacy’s just a baby though, so all she does is cry and sleep. It’s really boring.”

“Oh…well I don’t have any siblings…It’s just me and my dad…”

Now it was Sam’s face that was scrunching up, but in confusion as he asked, “But I thought you were visiting your mom’s family?”

Falling silent, the boy avoided Sam’s eyes again, and Sam was beginning to understand why maybe this boy was alone at a park when he should be at his relative’s house.

“My mom is dead,” whispered the boy softly after a while, his eyes focused on his hands instead of Sam. “They said that just because she was gone didn’t mean we couldn’t visit, and then all they want to do is talk about her and ask if I still think about her and they kept blaming Dad for things and I…I just had to get out of the house before they drove me crazy.”

Sam was regretting his decision to stay at the bottom of the slide rather than walk around and climb up because he really felt like the boy could use a hug right then.

“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to--”

The boy laughed weakly, still not meeting Sam’s eyes as he said, “It’s okay. It was a couple years ago now, but it just was frustrating to have them try to pull me back into my grief when I’ve worked so hard to get out.”

“Well, how about I help you forget all that, and you join me in a swing competition?”

Their eyes met again, and upon seeing the small smile peeking out onto the boy’s face, Sam moved away from the slide and gestured for him to slide down. The boy was hesitant, as if he didn’t like the idea of slides, but then he took a deep breath and slid down, brushing himself off after he stood up.

When he was done, he turned to Sam and held out his hand, “I’m Kurt.”

Grinning, Sam took his hand and shook it, “Nice to meet you, Kurt. I’m Sam.”

“Sam, I hope you’re ready to lose because I am known for being quite the master of the swing.”

“Oh really?” Sam was glad that his idea seemed to be working, and Kurt was smirking back at him.

“You’re going _down_ , Sam.”

Sam laughed before shooting Kurt a playful smile as he took off running towards the swings declaring, “Not if I get a head start!”

“Hey!” Kurt sounded indignant as he ran after Sam, but Sam could tell that the other boy wasn’t mad.

It made Sam feel good to know that he’d been able to help this boy happy again.

\---

Despite Sam’s head start, Kurt still won. Pouting, mostly for show, Sam demanded a rematch, to which Kurt was going to indulge him, but was interrupted by someone calling out his name.

“Kurt! Where are you?”

Raising an eyebrow, Sam looked at Kurt curious because he had thought that people had at least known where he was. Kurt blushed lightly and bowed his head before he murmured, “I may or may not have told them I was going to play in the backyard and then snuck out through the gate.”

Sam smiled softly as he heard the same person, a man who sounded incredibly worried, call out for Kurt again. Nudging his new, and sadly temporary, friend in the shoulder, Sam said, “You should probably go let him know you’re okay. I know my parents freak out when they don’t know where I am.”

Kurt let out a sigh as he stood up and made to go towards the voice, but he stopped before he got too far. His eyes on his feet, but facing Sam, he asked, “H-Hey Sam? Can I do something right quick?”

Not sure exactly what to expect, Sam said, “Sure, Kurt.”

Almost faster than Sam could comprehend, Kurt had kissed his cheek and dashed away, leaving only a faint echo of “thanks” on the wind along with the weird tingly sensation Sam was feeling where Kurt had kissed him.

For the longest time, Sam just stared off where Kurt had disappeared, wondering if there was any chance he’d ever see that boy again—the boy who just wanted to forget the pain of his mother’s death and remember her, the boy who had beaten him at a swinging competition, the boy who had been his first kiss.

\---

Years later when Sam Evans moved from Tennessee to Ohio, he was under the impression that this would make it harder for Kurt from the playground to ever find him again (assuming Kurt wanted to ever see him again). The moment he walked into Glee club after being persuaded to join by Finn, he found out how wrong he was.

Sure, the boy had looked like what he figured Kurt might’ve looked like now, but he also figured he was just projecting onto the guy because he really wanted to see Kurt again—to ask why he’d kissed him on the cheek all those years ago, and if perhaps Sam could kiss _him_ on the lips.

When he was sure that it was the same Kurt from the playground, Sam was almost hurt when Kurt didn’t immediately corner him after Glee. Then he remembered that on that day in the park, Sam’s hair had been short for the summer and still brown.

Sam almost couldn’t stop himself from grinning when Kurt accused him of dying his hair because that gave him hope that maybe— _maybe_ —Kurt did remember him, and that getting that kiss wouldn’t be as hard as he feared.


End file.
